iPhone 5 hardware tests underway 'for high-res screens'

More pixels for Apple's next handset?

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If you are someone who looks at their iPhone screens and cries because the Retina display isn't crystal clear enough to play Angry Birds on, then you're in luck as it is being reported that Apple's working on some new components to pack into its upcoming iPhone 5 which will be able to cope with a higher-res screen.

The GPU drivers that are being tested can achieve higher resolutions of 1280 x 720 and 1440 x 800.

Given that the current crop of iPhones managed a 960 x 640 display, this is a sizeable chunk of quality difference if the traditional 3.5-inch display is kept.

Screen situation

All this is according to German site Macerkopf.de, which believes it has on good authority that Apple is keeping its engineers busy with component testing, but it is not known whether a dual-core or quad-core chip is being put through Apple's exacting standards..

There are a few caveats to this information, however, and it is to do with the sizes mentioned not actually being scalable to the current iPhone 4/4S display.

As MacRumours points out, if these are indeed the new display details then devs will have a bit of a nightmare scaling their apps to the pixels on the screen – this is because the pixel count is not neatly doubled like it was for the iPhone 4.

There's been rumours for some time that the size of the iPhone screen is set to change, with many believing that the iPhone 5 is set to get a 4-inch display.

As this isn't a site that's known for breaking solid news about Apple products, we are pegging this as It's Possible on the TechRadar Rumour Meter.